New research has found that a low number of companies have adopted the blockchain, highlighting that many remain weary to its benefits.

In Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey it discovered that only one percent of CIOs (chief information officer) had indicated any type of adoption with the technology within their companies. A further eight percent said that they were in short-term planning or active experimentation with the blockchain. Notably, though, 77 percent said that their organisation had no interest in adopting the technology and/or no action planned to investigate or develop it.

The survey looked at 3,000 CIOs worldwide to determine its results.

Of the 293 CIOs organisations that are in short-term planning or active experimentation with the blockchain, 23 percent stated that the technology requires the most new skills to introduce of any technology area. A further 18 percent said that the skills required for the blockchain are the most difficult to find.

David Furlonger, vice president and Gartner Fellow, said:

The challenge for CIOs is not just finding and retaining qualified engineers, but finding enough to accommodate growth in resources as blockchain developments grow. Qualified engineers may be cautious due to the historically libertarian and maverick nature of the blockchain developer community.

Interestingly, 14 percent said that the technology requires the biggest change within the culture of the IT department, with 13 percent of the opinion that the structure of the IT department had to change in order to accommodate the technology.

The survey also found that CIOs recognised that the technology could bring about a change in the operating and business models of an organisation. Not only that, but they indicated a challenge in being ready and able to meet the requirements.

Furlonger added that:

Blockchain technology requires understanding of, at a fundamental level, aspects of security, law, value exchange, decentralized governance, process and commercial architectures. It therefore implies that traditional lines of business and organization silos can no longer operate under their historical structures.

For the technology to flourish and be embraced within more companies it’s important to understand what the blockchain is and what it’s capable of today, so that it can transform the services of tomorrow, Furlonger stated.